Barack Obama -- 1st Amendment

Obama v 1st Amendment

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STFU! I won!

1st Amendment

Obama is scheduled to speak at a rally at the University of Mary Washington today (UMW). The public is invited to this forum, on property it, the public, owns. However, signs and banners will not be allowed, according to the organizers and compliant campus officials. Suddenly, UMW is a First Amendment-Free, or at least a First Amendment-Crippled, Zone, subject to the self-serving preferences of politicos. Why does an Obama rally justify taking a little off the top of Americans’ most fundamental rights?

A UMW spokeswoman says that the Obama campaign required the sign-and-banner ban. That campaign tells us that the ban is for "security" reasons. But a spokesman for the U.S. Secret Service, responsible for protecting presidential candidates, says that the service has no objection to signs at rallies, provided that no "part of the sign could be used as a weapon," e.g., a heavy metal pole or a sharpened stick.

Just more Chicago gangland tactics from Camp Obama.

The McCain campaign tells us, "We encourage people to make signs at our events."

Police State Tactics

Gov. Matt Blunt today issued the following statement on news reports that have exposed plans by U.S. Senator Barack Obama to use Missouri law enforcement to threaten and intimidate his critics.

"St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Bob McCulloch, St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce, Jefferson County Sheriff Glenn Boyer, and Obama and the leader of his Missouri campaign Senator Claire McCaskill have attached the stench of police state tactics to the Obama-Biden campaign."

"What Senator Obama and his helpers are doing is scandalous beyond words, the party that claims to be the party of Thomas Jefferson is abusing the justice system and offices of public trust to silence political criticism with threats of prosecution and criminal punishment.

"This abuse of the law for intimidation insults the most sacred principles and ideals of Jefferson. I can think of nothing more offensive to Jefferson’s thinking than using the power of the state to deprive Americans of their civil rights. The only conceivable purpose of Messrs. McCulloch, Obama and the others is to frighten people away from expressing themselves, to chill free and open debate, to suppress support and donations to conservative organizations targeted by this anti-civil rights, to strangle criticism of Mr. Obama, to suppress ads about his support of higher taxes, and to choke out criticism on television, radio, the Internet, blogs, e-mail and daily conversation about the election.

"Barack Obama needs to grow up. Leftist blogs and others in the press constantly say false things about me and my family. Usually, we ignore false and scurrilous accusations because the purveyors have no credibility. When necessary, we refute them. Enlisting Missouri law enforcement to intimidate people and kill free debate is reminiscent of the Sedition Acts -- not a free society."

Obama Is An Old-Fashioned Stalinist

In this letter, sent to TV stations from Obama campaign general counsel Bob Bauer, the Obama campaign, once again, attempts to intimidate television station managers from airing a TV ad by the National Rifle Association.

Bauer argues, "Unlike federal candidates, independent political organizations do not have a 'right to command the use of broadcast facilities.' Moreover, you have a duty 'to protect the public from false, misleading or deceptive advertising.' We request that you immediately cease airing this advertising."

The Obama campaign takes issue with an ad called "Hunter," pointing out that claims in the ad were called "false" by Factcheck.org, and were given three Pinocchios by the Washington Post's "Factchecker."

In response, Cleta Mitchell, Counsel to the NRA, fired back in a letter to station managers that the fact checkers in this case are wrong.

"We respectfully request that your station disregard the shamefully false assertions from the Obama campaign and its attorneys," Mitchell writes. You can read more of Mitchell's letter at the blog of Ben Smith of Politico, who reprinted it in full.

Political speech is absolute. This is another attempt by Obama's NKVD to deny Americans their 1st Amendment "free expression" rights. As you read down the page you will see other instances of intimidation by Obama's NKVD. This is obviously a formal tactic of his campaign.

Just imagine what these people would do with the full force of the Department of Justice behind them.

Obama's assault on free speech reminds me of how Islam deals with speech it does not like: "Behead Those Who Insult The Prophet."

As an aside, the "lawyer letter" is on Obama Campaign stationary. Obama's name in the letterhead is quite large. One can hardly read Biden's name.